First Build

[Noah11]

Ok so this is my first build. I am very restricted money wise. I want a micro ATX Motherboard for at the most $125 (if its really good and extra $25 wouldnt hurt). I want all of my other components under $100 (except for the CPU). I want the CPU to be Intel LGA1155. But I have done so much looking and I am trying to stay under $400. I already have the case (and a 5-10 year old PSU at 350 watts). I already have the optical drives. I want the motherboard to be ASUS. I really want it to be micro ATX or mini ITX and chipset P67. Unfortanetly mini ITX doesnt have P67 yet. Please help. I want a good cheap build (I dont need more than a Terabyte of harddrive space and I can cope with 500GB).

 

[Noah11]

Ok so this is my first build. I am very restricted money wise. I want a micro ATX Motherboard for at the most $125 (if its really good and extra $25 wouldnt hurt). I want all of my other components under $100 (except for the CPU). I want the CPU to be Intel LGA1155. But I have done so much looking and I am trying to stay under $400. I already have the case (and a 5-10 year old PSU at 350 watts). I already have the optical drives. I want the motherboard to be ASUS. I really want it to be micro ATX or mini ITX and chipset P67. Unfortanetly mini ITX doesnt have P67 yet. Please help. I want a good cheap build (I dont need more than a Terabyte of harddrive space and I can cope with 500GB).

I also want DDR3 RAM (forgot to add that).

 

[Noah11]

I screwed up I want z68 not p67

 

[AbdullahG]

MoBo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131786

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115072

RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211409

HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136795

Everything should meet your needs. However, what do you plan on doing? I need to know this, especially for the CPU. If you plan on gaming or everyday tasks, the listed CPU is great. If you plan on doing any video editing, rendering, etc., you will need to spend an extra $100 for the i7 2600k if you want the most out of you CPU. The "K" means the CPU has unlocked multipliers and allows for easy overclocking (increasing the CPU's operating frequency; i.e. stock 3.3GHz CPU OCed to 4.0GHz). If you do not plan on OCing, the non-K version will do and is $10 cheaper. That being said, an non-K version should also go along with an H61/H67 chipset MoBo. The Z68 chipset MoBo allows for both overclocking and the use of the integrated HD graphics in the CPU, as well as a new feature only for Z68 MoBos which is SDD caching (if you have an SDD and a HDD). The H61 allows the use of the integrated HD grpahics, but no overclocking or SDD caching. For me to anser your question completely, I wll need to know your purpose for this computer. Apologies for the long response

 

[Noah11]

I just plan on gaming and writing programs in c++ and perl, and just everyday tasks. Nothing really heavy on the cpu. I also did a bit of digging and there are people claiming if you use a mother board with a certain AMD southbridge you can take one of AMDs Sempron 140's and turn on hybrid mode which effectively turns it into a dual core processor for $40. Is there any truth to this. Ive been on multiple sites and they do have people who have successfully done this and others who havent. What do you think?

 

[AbdullahG]

I haven't heard of anything like that, but it seems legit. What I have heard similar to that is how some AMD CPUs can have an extra core unlocked (a 3 core CPU to a 4 core CPU). Anyway, I would get an i5 2500K for your needs.

 

[Noah11]

Ok, but do you know anywhere I could get it cheaper?

 

[Noah11]

Best answer selected by Noah11.